- Hillary Clinton
« Fact Sheet from June 15, 2016 Veterans Event
June 15, 2016
Sharp Contrast Between Clinton, Trump On Veterans And Military
Families
Hillary
Clinton
held
a
discussion in Hampton, Virginia, today with veterans,
military families, and members of the defense community. On this
campaign, Clinton has made supporting veterans and military families a
top priority, and it’s a cause she has fought for throughout her
career. On the other hand, despite his incessant lip service on the
trail, Donald Trump has been disrespecting our veterans and our
military for decades, proving yet again he's unqualified and
temperamentally unfit to be commander-in-chief. Take a look at the
contrast below.
Trump
Businesses Have Fired Employees Because Of Their Military Service
HuffPo: Trump Institute Fired Veteran For ‘Absences’ After He Was
Deployed To Afghanistan
CNN: Iraq war veteran claims Trump University fired her for serving in
the Army Reserve
HuffPo: Third Veteran Dumped By Trump Because Of Military Service
Trump
Repeatedly Lied About Donations To Veterans Charities
Washington Post: Here’s how we found out about Donald Trump’s phantom
$1 million donation to vets
Mother Jones' Kevin Drum: “If character is supposed to be important in
our presidents, this is evidence of the most contemptible kind of
character imaginable. He tried to cheat a bunch of veterans!”
CNN: Trump’s website boasts that he gave $1 million to the 1995
Nation’s Day Parade, but the event’s organizer said that’s about three
times more than he actually gave.
Trump
Scammed Veterans Through Trump University
CNN [VIDEO]: 40-year Navy veteran scammed out of $26,000 by Trump
University
Ex-Marine: “[Trump University] was a con. I’m 25-years-old, barely
making $3,000 a month and they told me to increase my credit limit. I
just maxed out three credit cards and I’m supposed to be able to
qualify for loans to buy real estate? Those stupid principles have led
me to borrow $700,000 of other people’s money and lose it all. I’m
still paying off some of that debt to this day.”
TIME: “The records indicate, for example, that Trump University
collected approximately $40 million from its students–who included
veterans, retired police officers and teachers–and that Trump
personally received approximately $5 million of it”
Trump
Repeatedly Compared His Sex Life And The Risk Of Contracting STDs To War
1993: Trump: “You know, if you’re young, and in this era, and if you
have any guilt about not having gone to Vietnam. We have our own
Vietnam. It’s called the dating game.”
1997: Trump on avoiding STDs: “I’ve been so lucky in terms of that
whole world. It is a dangerous world out there — it’s scary, like
Vietnam. Sort of like the Vietnam era. It is my personal Vietnam. I
feel like a great and very brave soldier.”
2004: Trump on avoiding STDs: “ I tell my sons just to get a nice
girlfriend and be happy, because it’s dangerous out there. It’s
Vietnam. I guess now we can say it’s Iraq—same deal, right?”
Trump
Insults Prisoners Of War
Trump on Sen. John McCain: “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero
because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured, ok? I hate
to tell you.”
BuzzFeed: Trump: I Don’t Regret McCain Comments, My Poll Numbers Went Up
Trump
Attempted To Kick Disabled Veterans Who Were Vendors Off The Street
Across Two Decades
1991: Trump Letter to State Assemblyman John Dearie: “While disabled
veterans should be given every opportunity to earn a living, is it fair
to do so to the detriment of the city as a whole or its tax paying
citizens and businesses?... Do we allow Fifth Ave., one of the world’s
finest and most luxurious shopping districts, to be turned into an
outdoor flea market, clogging and seriously downgrading the area?”
2004: Trump Letter to Mayor Bloomberg: “Whether they are veterans or
not, they should not be allowed to sell on this most important and
prestigious shopping street… I hope you can stop this very deplorable
situation before it is too late.”
Trump Has
Signaled He Wants To Privatize The VA, And Said He Opposed The
Post-9/11 GI Bill
WSJ: “While short on details, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee
would likely push VA health care toward privatization and might move
for it to become more of an insurance provider like Medicare rather
than an integrated hospital system, said Sam Clovis, Mr. Trump’s chief
policy adviser, in an interview.”
POLL: 64% of veterans oppose privatization -- with 54% of them strongly
opposing it -- while only 29% support it.
Asked point-blank in May if he supported the Post-9/11 G.I., which has
benefitted over 700,000 veterans and their family members, Trump said
no.
Trump
Insults Our Military
Trump: “Our military is a disaster.”
NYT: “Donald J. Trump, who received draft deferments through much of
the Vietnam War, told the author of a coming biography that he
nevertheless “always felt that I was in the military” because of his
education at a military-themed boarding school.”
Trump on Armored Humvees: “If a bomb goes off our wounded
warriors–instead of losing their legs, their arms, worse, they’re okay.
They go for a little ride upward and they come down.”
Hillary Clinton Has A Real Record
And Agenda Of Supporting Veterans And Military Families
Clinton’s plan will:
- Fundamentally reform veterans’ health care to ensure veterans’ access
to timely and high quality health care and block efforts to privatize
the VHA
- Modernize and refocus the full spectrum of veterans’ benefits across
the federal government
- Overhaul VA governance to create a new veteran-centric model of
excellence
- Empower veterans and strengthen our economy and communities by
connecting their unique skills to the jobs of the future
- Sustain and strengthen the all-volunteer force
-Strengthen services and support for military families
[Read
the
full,
12-page veterans plan here
and her new, expanded
agenda
to
support
military families here.]
Clinton’s
Record
Joined efforts to build veterans
rehabilitation center. Hillary joined
with Republican Senator John McCain to personally raise money for the
Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. Their efforts were critical to building
the Center for the Intrepid, a new $50 million state-of-the-art
physical rehabilitation facility in San Antonio, Texas, designed
specifically to help seriously wounded service members returning from
Iraq and Afghanistan.
Increased assistance for families
caring for veterans. Hillary
introduced the Heroes at Home Act of 2006, and fought to establish new
services for military members and veterans suffering from
post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries. She successfully
amended the 2007 Defense Appropriations Act to establish a traumatic
brain injury family caregiver training curriculum for DOD and VA
hospitals, and she championed efforts to make it easier for military
family members to provide care for their loved ones.
Expanded health care coverage for
Reservists and National Guard
members. Hillary worked across the aisle with Senator Lindsey
Graham to
expand veterans’ access to military health insurance, ensuring that all
members of the Reserves and National Guard—and their families—had
access to military health benefits even when they’re not deployed.
Protected family members caring for
wounded warriors. Hillary
collaborated closely with Senator Chris Dodd to author and introduce
new legislation that aimed to broaden protections afforded by the
Family and Medical Leave Act to the family members of wounded service
members. She is proud that the legislation was enacted as part of the
2008 National Defense Authorization Act.
Supported survivors of fallen service
members. Working with Republican
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Hillary introduced legislation to expand
benefits afforded to surviving spouses. She joined with Republican
Senator Chuck Hagel to introduce a bill to increase the gratuity paid
to family members of fallen veterans from $12,000 to $100,000, a
proposal that was enacted as part of the 2005 supplemental
appropriations act. Hillary also served as an honorary board member for
the non-profit Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, which provides
resources and support to family members of those who have died in
military service.
Was one of the first to recognize Gulf
War Syndrome and fought to
ensure Gulf War Veterans got the treatment they needed.
She met
with sick veterans and researched Gulf War Syndrome before President
Clinton announced the formation of a committee to study the issue and
was the point person for the administration on the issue.
For Immediate Release, June 15, 2016